Lesbian vampirism is a
trope in 20th-century
exploitation film and literature that has its roots in
Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's novella
Carmilla (1872) about the "love" of a female vampire (the title character) for a young woman (the narrator):
- Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, 'You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever'. (Carmilla, Chapter 4).